This one is a real incident and unarguably the one which made me think over and over again.

I had to pick up a delivery from Nehru Place. I reside in Gurgaon. On that particular Saturday rather than taking Delhi Metro I decided in favor of DTC to Badarpur, and I never knew that this ride will provide an everlasting impression.

I boarded the DTC at Gurgaon Bus Stand, the bus was an interstate to Badarpur border. Just after boarding the bus I reserved a seat for myself by keeping my bag as an authority sign. Next I moved towards the conductor, those who are unaware of the fact let me tell you in Delhi Transport Corporation buses the conductor does not come to you for ticket it is your duty to get a ticket from him/her. The conductor seat is just behind the rear gate of the bus. While standing there I saw this kid for the first time, I was purchasing my ticket and he was standing along side me. He may be 7-8 years old, dressed casually but not fashionably in a half sleeves shirt, shorts and sandals. First time I saw a kid whose footwear did not have any cartoon character on them. While I was counting the change, the kid asked for one ticket and conductor told him to go back to his mother and ask for a change of 2 rupees. The kid bluntly replied my mother don’t have any change. The conductor rebuked him and made him go for the change against his wishes. He came back with the required change in a flash, got his ticket and went back. The conductor commented targeting me that kids these days are over smart. I totally agreed with him and provided one or two remarks of my own to convey how innocent and obeying I was at his age.

Bus moves to its destination, and as it is a real incident nothing special happened till MB road. When the bus was on Mehrauli Badarpur road (MB road) the kid made two quick visits to driver requesting him to stop the bus at Batra hospital. My seat was just behind driver seat, so when the kid came second time both he and I got irritated as we both knew that Batra Hospital is a decided stop for that route. My irritation was more aggravated due to the early encounter. I shifted my gaze to see that the kid and his mother were just behind my seat, and from there they can easily reach to the front door when their stop comes as the bus was almost empty. I told myself that this kid is overly hyperactive and once he grows up he will definitely be a troublemaker.

Finally the Batra hospital stop arrived and driver working at his best abilities stopped the bus in middle of the road. The kid and his mother along with his infant sibling in her lap were at the front door. Driver opened the door and the kid shouted at him, actually ordered him to stop the bus at the side of the road. Bus driver being the insensitive creatures they all told him to get out of his bus quickly, which he and his mother did. It is the moment when they deboarded the bus and I saw the infant child through the window I realized what a huge mistake I committed by considering that 8 year old kid as a naughty one. His brother was frail beyond imagination and was suffering from a horrible skin infection, due to which her mother could not displace the little kid a lot. She was holding her child with all the motherly care a lady can gather. The other kid, the elder brother he was responsible for all the other errands which may seem infinitesimally small but were huge in the stature considering the responsibilities he was carrying on his tiny shoulders at the age where he should be enjoying on someone else’s shoulders.

More than 15 days have gone by since this encounter happened but still the kid comes to me in my thoughts and says listen you big guy you may be a lot older than me in age but I am the greater one because I help my mother to take care of my brother. My mother used to tell me that some kids grow wiser quickly due to circumstances. I agree with you mummy.

Are you the one who always answer a question, whether or not you know the answer?

If your answer to above question is yes, then please read further. If you think that you are helping people by satisfying their every question then here is the reality check the only need you are satisfying is your own. The need to collect brownie points by imposing yourself as encyclopedia. The fault is not all yours. Everybody have acquaintances who are quite popular in their peer group due to knowledge spectrum they have, and willingly or unwillingly you take the same road despite having a lesser bright spectrum. Who is to blame if envy is your capital vice.

Reading habit, a decent memory, and most importantly ability to cook up a story on the fly helps a lot in making a heap of brownies in your backyard. Years pass without your ignorance to any question asked or not asked from you. It is a feel good factor having a small yet faithful “You Know All” fan club. One day comes when the wall whose every brick symbolize someone’s trust in you, will start having cracks in it. More importantly it happens to be the wall which can’t be rebuild once it collapses. This is how the cracks can come…

“Answer all” habit is quite addictive. You don’t realize that their is stranger in the usual crowd today, and he may know the actual factual answer. As some query arises you start cooking the solution and delivering it fresh from the barbeque. The stranger observes that deliverable is pork yet watches you delivering beef. At first he remains astonished and silent, later he digests your pork and then tell all other customers that actually beef was on the menu today. No point arguing because being a fast operator and smooth talker does not make you pragmatically correct. So cook tastes embarrassment, moreover the shield of faith in him gets a dent.

Like above a catalyst is not always needed to hinder a cyclic chemical reaction, sometimes one of the chemical decides to explore further. This scenario is far more worse than the one mentioned above. You told a story, afterwards one of your faithful recipient just got to know about a thing named google. Being a blind follower of your revelations he knew that google will tell the same he already knows; the knowledge that you imparted. He matches your facts with the ones he got from a search engine and here comes a small earthquake of 4 on Richter scale. At first your flock member will despise himself upon having a doubt on you, but further exploration on different topics and with different people the situation aggravates. The earthquake causes a Tsunami which washes away the castles of the trust which was put upon you. Probable exploration by some chemical may lead to explosion, so be cautious.

Before the trust word completely vanishes from your world start saying I don’t know at least when you actually don’t know. There is no harm in saying it even if you know. At last you knowledge is your property. Potential benefits of saying I don’t know:

People consider you a normal human being who has a trait of being little bit ignorant. They be more nice with you, it is the best benefit of being normal. After all no one hates a normal i.e. simple guy/girl.

Your mind finds peace which was long overdue.

You can actually give more focus to the areas in which you actually want to be knowledgeable.

If you answer less, then you get more answers. Remember in the class if nobody used to answer a particular question, then teacher used to provide a detailed illustrated solution to it. Akin to that in this tradeoff by not lying and keeping mum you are getting truth.

I don’t know is the best answer you can give to people with whom you don’t want to interact. Use IDK for every query they fire on you, soon they will realize your intentions. You didn’t fire a bullet and you killed the fly.

If you also suffer from the disease of “Answer em All”, and agree with what I have written above. Then start practicing I don’t know.

Forgive me, I am prone to semicolon overuse;
Forgive me, I deliver against the order of nature;

My wife, please don’t mind me on the night when I come early, but yet experience insomnia till 3 in the morning;
My girl in office, you also please don’t mind me on the day, when I come to office in my overnight hood;

It shouldn’t be an issue if I am addict to nicotine and caffeine;
It shouldn’t be an issue if I don’t live, I just exist as a machine;

Don’t get surprised if you see me as a mess;
Don’t get surprised if I don’t have a policy to save tax;

You always wonder why I am not available on my phone;
I always wonder why always “I am stating my name after the tone”;

After all this is me I the IT guy;
No matter how hard I try;
Old habits cease to die.